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My circular design with floor trusses coming together at the center make it difficult to evenly space under floor tubing, so have been considering gypcrete.
Interested in comments on this idea. Over the current 5/8″ cdx place Insulating/reflecting tarp. On top of tarp at perimeter of building and spaced every 24″ place 3″x8′ strips of ripped plywood. In the channels, on top of the insulated tarp (which has bubble pads between vapor reflective barriers adding 1/2″ bulk ) place your tubing, spaced at 6 inches. Cover everything with substrate (probably another 5/8″ cdx) nailing into plywood strips. Final floor to be nailed either at plywood strip or into substrate.
Any input appreciated.
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I think the consensus is that the bubble stuff wouldn't be effective in such a case. The typical low-mass setups focus more on aluminum to spread the heat than foil to reflect it.
*Would the circular design preclude Warmboard? You might look at the available layouts on their panels and play around to see if something would work, especially with some self-routed additions. (warmboard.com)
*After I posted I read several threads that mentioned using sand as thermal mass. Since I'm on the beach that intrigued me. I would dread bringing that much sand up 17 rickity old steps, but since cost is a factor it may be worth considering. I also read about throwing in some portland cement to improve the conductivity (my words) and that would probably still be much less expensig than the gypcrete or warmboard alts. Still dreading the steps and now the mixing but keep reminding myself about cost.There still needs to be insulation underneath though and I wonder if I use thicker plywood strips, say 3/4", whether I could use the insultarp as described in my origial post, then cover it and the tubes with either the sand or the sand/cement combo.
*Thanks will check out the site.